Friday, December 6, 2002

You've read about Fr. Foley, the subject of yesterday's revelations. The only good thing about that situation is that it does seem clear that diocesan officials saw the guy as a problem and struggled about what to do with him. In the Boston Herald's article, there's a description of various press encounters with Foley yesterday:

In an interview with New England Cable News yesterday, Foley at first denied his secret past - including fathering at least one other child by a second woman.``I'm just stunned,'' he said. ``This is absolutely whole cloth. I mean, I have an outstanding record with the archdiocese. There has never been the slightest hint of impropriety in my conduct.'' Asked whether he has children, he said: ``Absolutely not, and I don't think I care to say anything further.''But when confronted shortly afterward by a Boston Globe reporter brandishing Foley's own incriminating files, Foley called the issue ``a private matter'' and would not comment further. He refused a Herald request for an interview, retreating to a Danvers apartment.

I found the Herald's account to be the most careful and thorough.

And remember, this guy started his first affair soon after his ordination in 1960. Remember this guy is heterosexual. Just remember.

By the way, in the December 15 issue of Our Sunday Visitor, columnist David Carlin has a good column concerning Nancy Pelosi, a piece that also gathers in former Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy, and could have, but didn't throw in Tom Daschle as well, all Catholics of A Certain Age, given their Catholic educations in the supposedly Golden Age of the 1950's, when all was well, and solid and everyone knew what Catholic meant - and it certainly didn't mean supporting abortion. Carlin quite reasonably asks - was this Golden Age really so Golden, if it could produce a generation thick with Catholic pro-abortion politicos? He writes:

It certainly looked healthy on the outside, but inside a cancer was eating away. What was this cancer? If we could identify it, we would go a long way toward understanding how to restore American Catholicism to real health."

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, because it really is an intriguing question.